POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE and STUART LITTLE are struggling over who will nab the top spot at international box offices. For the week ending April 26, 2000, POKEMON took Spain and Italy. Around the globe POKEMON finished in 2nd in the U.K. in its second weekend in theatres; 3rd in Germany in its second weekend in theatres; and 4th in France and Sweden. Already in the U.K., POKEMON has grossed a total of $13.14 million in only one week of release. STUART LITTLE finished at #1 in Germany, Australia and Hong Kong.

POKEMON is still going strong. KIDS WB! has ordered 52 more episodes of the phenomenon for September 2000. The latest broadcasters to catch the series are TV4 Sweden, TV2 Denmark, TV2 Norway, MTV Finland, RTL-Klub (Hungary) and RTL-TVI (Belgium), as well as Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand. The total number of episodes for the series is now 156.

George Lucas has decided to go mostly digital with the live-action segments of STAR WARS EPISODE II. On Sunday, April 9, 2000, Lucas said, after four months of testing high-definition cameras, he will start shooting most of the next STAR WARS installment with Sony digital cameras. Jim Morris, president of Lucas Digital, said the cameras had "exceeded expectations." In June, the film will start shooting in Australia for two months, then move to Italy and Tunisia in August for another month, followed by 18 months of post-production.

The team behind INDEPENDENCE DAY and GODZILLA is back, producing ARACH ATTACK, a special effects-driven comedic thriller about a toxic waste spill that creates giant spiders. The flick is scheduled to start shooting in September in Australia. New Zealander Ellory Elkayem will direct from a script he co-wrote with Jesse Alexander. The pic is being produced by Centropolis Entertainment, the production house of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, which has teamed on the project with Warner Bros. and Australia's Village Roadshow Pictures.

Big Idea Productions, producers of the popular children's video collection

"Veggie-mania," is looking for a VICE PRESIDENT of PRODUCTION. . . Wam!Net

is seeking a PRODUCTION MANAGER to be responsible for managing a large

scale render farm and supporting production from Visual Effects Studios,

post-production facilities and design/engineering groups working remotely

via the company's network. . . New Zealand's Weta Digital seeks world-class

* Thursday, March 9, 2000 - Saturday, March 11, 2000. Madrid, Spain.





Cartoon, the European producers organization, will present a seminar on

"how to negotiate with the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Japan."

Discussions will focus on the structures, customs and constraints of the

fore mentioned markets. After an introduction on each country, the various

policies on international co-productions will be discussed. A question and

Bill Plympton has updated his

appearances page.

In March, "Surprise Cinema"

will be appearing in various festivals and other events in the US, Canada,

Belgium, Germany and Australia. Bill will be appearing at the Zagreb World

Festival of Animated Films in Zagreb, Croatia, June 12-25, 2000.

* Thursday, April 6 - Sunday, April 9, 2000. Brisbane, Australia.



The Third Brisbane International Animation Festival represents Australia in

an international animation festival alliance with Ottawa, Holland, Fantoche

and Anima Mundi. It is Australia's only festival dedicated exclusively to

animation in all o

Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.

Worldwide sensation Pokemon was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in

Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January

and February 2000. The international distributor, Lacey Entertainment, also

announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey and Noga

Communications' Children's Channel in Israel.





The Pokemon phenomenon began in America in 1998 with the release of the

On Friday, January 14, 2000, Walt Disney International-Latin America

announced the launch of the Disney Channel Latin America and an exclusive

satellite television distribution agreement with Galaxy Latin America, LLC

for DIRECTV service in Spanish-speaking Latin America. "Launching the

Disney Channel in Latin America in 2000 is an exciting initiative for the

Walt Disney Company," said Diego Lerner, president and managing director,

WDI-Latin America. "As we have in other parts of the world, we will now